The present disclosure relates generally to lottery systems, and more particularly to embodiments of a system, method and apparatus for drawing-based games.
Lottery games that are determined by pre-printed indicia and random drawings are known. For example, instant lottery tickets typically provide a scratch-off coating whereby a user can scratch off the coating to determine if the underlying indicia result in any winnings. When instant tickets are made available for sale, they are generally provided to a retailer in packs, and an activation code or number can be read by, or entered through, a terminal to activate the pack of tickets for sale and play. Once the pack is activated, the individual tickets in the pack can be sold without requiring any further activation for the tickets to be played and redeemed. When a ticket purchaser seeks to redeem a purchased instant ticket, a validation code, such as a void-if-removed number (“VIRN”), can be scanned at a retailer POS terminal or other terminal to confirm that the ticket is a winner, and the scanned code is communicated to a lottery host, which checks the code against a database of stored ticket information and returns a message to the retailer terminal that the code is valid to allow the retailer to redeem the ticket for its associated winnings. The VIRN code is typically covered by latex for security purposes.
Online or draw-based games, including raffle games, allow a user to select various indicia such as numbers, letters or symbols, for example, or have the indicia randomly selected for the user, and then a random drawing determines if the user's indicia match enough of the randomly drawn indicia for the user to win. With draw-based games, special drawing game devices or terminals separate from standard retailer point-of-sale (POS) terminals are generally employed to process wagers and print tickets and/or receipts with the player's requested or randomly selected indicia. These special devices may be positioned away from traditional checkout lines and POS terminals, such that players who may be shopping for other items must make a second stop at the special device to make a wager for a draw-based game. Regardless, the special terminal communicates the wager and associated details to a host as part of registering the wager. The game's integrity is maintained, at least in part, by ensuring that only purchased tickets with registered wagers are capable of winning when the random drawing occurs.
Draw-based lottery tickets with pre-printed game indicia are not common, but as with traditional draw-based lottery tickets, the operator of the lottery must know the indicia or set of indicia tied to tickets that were actually purchased in order to register those tickets as eligible to win. If not all of the pre-printed tickets have been sold or activated, then any unsold or unactivated tickets must not be included in determining winners in order to maintain the integrity of the wagering game. While a pack of pre-printed draw-based lottery tickets can be activated for sale, such activation cannot be treated as an instant ticket pack activation would be, where each individual ticket is thereafter redeemable by scanning a validation code, since unscrupulous individuals may seek out unpurchased, but winning, draw-based tickets after a drawing has occurred. Accordingly, draw-based lottery tickets with pre-printed indicia must be purchased, and the purchase recorded before the drawing, in order for the ticket to be activated for play and later redemption.
While a code can be provided on a pre-printed draw-based ticket for scanning in order to activate and/or register the ticket for play, problems arise if the activation for play code is not scanned or otherwise entered and communicated to the host. For example, if a purchaser buys a pre-printed draw-based ticket and forgets to activate it, or if a purchaser buys a group of tickets and only some of the group are activated, then any unactivated ticket may include winning indicia but not be redeemable, since it would be treated by the system as an unsold ticket. Because games can be terminated for various reasons, if a purchased ticket is not activated prior to the last drawing for a given game, the purchaser may feel as if no value was obtained for the purchase. There is thus a technical challenge with pre-printed draw-based lottery tickets to ensure that all purchased tickets are activated for play prior to the game's termination, even when the ticket code has not been scanned or otherwise communicated to the host. This challenge is heightened by the desire to reduce the equipment footprint of lottery machines in retailer sites such that all required operations can be fulfilled using a variety of devices, including personal communications devices.
A further challenge exists with pre-printed draw based ticket games where the tickets can have different values even before entry into the drawing. For example, it can be desirable to provide draw-based ticket games with pre-printed game indicia, where the recurrence of a single number or other indicia on the ticket provides the player with a chance to win greater amounts in the drawing. With pre-printed tickets having a variable expected return, an unscrupulous individual may try to learn what indicia are printed on unsold tickets to evaluate which tickets are more valuable prior to purchasing the tickets. While the pre-printed indicia can be provided under a latex or other scratch-off coating, an unscrupulous person with access to the database of stored ticket information may be able to read the ticket identification code, such as a game-pack-ticket number on the face of the ticket, access the system database to determine the playing indicia on the ticket, and then determine whether the ticket is more valuable than other tickets without purchasing the ticket or making it unsellable in any way. Thus, there is a technical challenge in providing pre-printed draw based ticket games with variable expected returns in that the system must ensure that it is not possible to look up in any system the details of what is printed on the ticket without having physically scratched off the latex covering, which would render the ticket void.